Hyderabad, June 13: While Makkah Masjid blast accused Devender Gupta and Lokesh Sharma would be brought to the city by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on PT (Prisoner Transit) warrant on Monday for further investigation, the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of two other suspects Sandeep Dange and Ramji Kalsangra remains.
There are reports that Dange and Kalsangra are the ones who made the bombs. While it is possible for the CBI sleuths to trace Dange, who has gone underground, reports suggest that Kalsangra, like another suspect in the case Sunil Joshi, has been eliminated to block the investigators from reaching the kingpins of the terrorist attack conspiracy. Nine people had died when a bomb planted under a marble bench in the mosque veranda went off even as the worshippers were finishing their Friday prayers on May 18, 2007. Another bomb was found unexploded in the mosque soon after. Five other persons had died when the police opened fire in the crowd protesting against the bomb explosion near the mosque.
The city police blamed LeT and HuJI for the terrorist attack and about 100 local Muslim youth were arrested and tortured. Of these, 26 were booked in cases other than the mosque bomb blast but all of them were acquitted by the court later. The investigation of the case was later handed over to the CBI. The role of Hindu militant organization Abhinav Bharat in Mecca Masjid blast case of which Gupta, Sharma, Dange and Kalsangra are said to activists came to light during the investigation of a similar bomb blast took place at Hazart Moinuddin Chisti dargah at Ajmer in Rajasthan.
According to sources, a scientist working with the DRDO, Kanchanbagh in the city, is a relative of either Gupta or Sharma. The accused came to Hyderabad at least twice before the blast was planned, stayed with the scientist and did the recce. It is not yet known whether scientist had a role in the entire episode. Though senior CBI officials have claimed that no locals were involved in the terrorist attack, there are questions as to how the operation of this magnitude could be carried out without logistic support of some residents in Hyderabad.
——–Agencies